Jacob woke to the same sensation as always; a metallic taste in his mouth. Such a feeling was common when one lived inside a nuclear power plant, however. He swung his legs over to the floor, and drank from a water bottle at his desk. He glanced around his room. It was a small, metal chamber, with only a bed, a desk, a terminal with info on the reactor, and a small closet. On the floor that led to the small metal door of his room, was a note. That meant one thing. Someone screwed up the reactor. Again. And since most of the radiation suits were faulty, the only one who was able to fix it was him. He read the note. In a very unpleasant script, it said, [i]Powers, the reactor discharged last night and we need to give it a jump-start before it gives out. You know the drill. O'Malley.[/i] Jacob sighed with annoyance. Why couldn't anyone manage the goddamn reactor without him?

Jacob walked out of his door into a long, metal hallway. He walked down a few doors before walking into the restroom. He splashed his face with water to wake himself up. It was going to be a long day, he guessed. He walked down a few more winding hallways before coming up to the nuclear waste disposal site in the plant. Jacob planned to charge up from the depleted waste sources the city left here, and use it to charge the reactor. The type of radiation didn't matter to him. It recharged in his system. Jacob walked through the decontamination seal, completely ignoring the warnings of "wear protective clothing". He had found he was immune to outside radiation a long time ago.

Jacob walked through the tank that served as the radioactive waste disposal site. All around him, the metallic objects of no description and barrels began to shimmer with a green glow, and waves of energy poured from them into Jacob. If he had done this a few years ago, it would have hurt like hell. However, constant radioactive exposure had dulled his sense to the pain it caused. After about 10 minutes, he walked back into the decontamination zone. As the room was cleaned, Jacob checked his body. Three tumors had formed on each arm, each about the size of a tennis ball. That would be enough to jump-start the reactor, but it wouldn't be pleasant for him.

Jacob walked down to the reactor level. As he neared the door, the unsightly face of O'Malley was waiting for him. [b]"Where the hell have you been, huh? We called you half an hour ago, you goddamn freak."[/b] Jacob just ignored him, shoving him aside and walking up to the reactor room. The decontamination process cleaned the room between, and he entered. The reactor core was a cluster of uranium nodes in the center of the room. The nodes would have depleted long ago if not for Jacob's constant intervention. With a grimace, he walked up to the nodes, and grabbed hold of them. Green energy pumped out of his hands, and into the nodes, jump-starting the reactions. After about 30 seconds,Jacob let go and stumbled back, panting with exhaustion. The skin on his arms had burnt off from his hands to about halfway down his forearms, leaving nothing but a glowing bone structure. He stumbled back through the decontamination room, and headed back to his room, ignoring the stares he received.

Jacob changed into a long sleeved jacket, and put on lead lined gloves he wore when he had used his powers recently. His skin would grow back in about 2 hours. He drank some more water, and choked down a stale bagel from his bag. Suddenly sick of the cramped, metal corridors of the power plant, Jacob made his way outside, to wander the city of the Paradise Lands.